Chiang Mai, Thailand · 9/19/25
You gain control of your thoughts by letting go of themadded 9/2/26 · 11 months later
This is meditation.
I failed at meditation for many years.
I tried every guided meditation.
Every breathing exercise.
I'd say yeah I need to meditate I'm gonna do it!
I'd do it for a few weeks and inevitably it wouldn't stick.
Last year, I found a small group in my town that meets up on Tuesday evenings for tea ceremony.
Together, we sit on the floor, criss-cross-applesauce, eyes closed, for about 90 minutes, over 7 rounds of tea.
No guide. Just you and your thoughts.
And that's when the magic happened for me.
There's nothing I'm supposed to be thinking or not thinking about. "If your mind wanders just bring it back to the breath!" None of that. Not even an intention to think about a particular thing. No special type of breathing I'm supposed to be doing.
Nothing.
I just sit there,
And I welcome
What Is
Whatever Is
Whatever presents itself
I welcome It
Without trying to whisk it away
And so
Inevitably
The thing I really ought to think about
Presents Itself
When It Is ready
Maybe at minute 32 of the sit
Whenever It Is
I welcome It in
Here, have a seat, I tell It
I sit with It
I let It talk
And critically, It talks; I listen
I let It get all Its energy out
Let It run around and bounce off the walls of my mind, if It so pleases
Then when It has fully run Its course
When It has said everything It has to say - usually it takes about 7 minutes or so, that's all
I say OK
Thank you for sharing (seriously, thank It for sharing - It's giving you useful information)
I see where you're coming from
And thank you for being here, for coming all this way to share this with me
Now here's how we're going to proceed
That's It
And in that process, what seemed like a big scary monster is cut down to size, and - most of the time - you realize it's more like a monkey rattling a tin can;
Not very deep.
And so, in regards to the original piece...
You gain control of your thoughts by letting go of them...a client recently shared this beautiful track with me. On the track, Alan Watts says:
You will go on thinking That is to say, Talking to yourself inside your head Automatically. But it's important that you don't try to repress those thoughts by forcing them out of your mind, because that will have precisely the same affect as trying to smooth rough water with a flat iron; you're just going to disturb it all the more What you do is this: As you hear sounds coming up in your head - thoughts You simply listen them As part of the general noise going on Just as you would be listening to the sound of my voice, Or just as you would be listening to cars going by Or two birds chattering outside the window